In many industries it is necessary to assemble two components together in an easy and efficient manner. Examples of such requirements are the need to attach one vehicle component to another, such as the attachment of an inner fender liner to a fender or the attachment of one interior component to another.
Conventional metal fasteners used for such applications rely on square or slotted holes. This is the result of manufacturers matching the straight bends of the fastener to the edges of the hole for improved fastener retention. However, square or slotted holes are not preferred among panel manufacturers due to the relatively high cost and complexity of the necessary punches. Another undesirable feature of the square or slotted holes is that the four corners of the hole concentrate panel stress and thus may induce component failure.
Thus an alternative approach to the shape of both the metal fastener and the holes for the fastener are desired. For example, it is desirable to provide a high performance metal fastener that can engage holes formed in two or more substrates such as panels. It is further desired to provide such a metal fastener that is capable of engaging holes in substrates that requires a relatively low insertion effort but that has a high resistance to being extracted from the components.
Accordingly, and as is the case in many industries, known approaches to fastening two or more components together using known fasteners are often undesirable and impractical. An improved fastener arrangement for attaching two components together remains wanting.